What was originally "the bible" for fire service cap badge collectors of the 1970's & 80's, Mike Akers the author was a London Fire Brigade Sub Officer on the blue watch at A22 Acton fire station in West London. He contacted fire brigades & wrote to them on an official capacity to produce his books ( Volume 1 & 2 ) covering the periods 1948 to 1974 in Volume 2 & 1974 to 1985 in his 1st volume ! It did help many collectors get very interested in collecting fire service cap badges as it was reasonably comprehensive, once he had achieved the fantastic collection for his books, he sold the whole collection at a large fire show in Germany believed to have fetched nearly £10,000 in the early 1990's !
I knew Mike Akers as I was a young firefighter joining the London Fire Brigade in 1980, & whilst stationed on the blue watch at Heston & Isleworth near Hounslow in Middlesex, a close station in proximity to Acton, I was sent on many stand by duties to Acton & became interested in cap badges myself at that time. Knowing people like Mike Akers gave me a knowledge about cap badges that has grown & grown over the decades as I have met many more serious cap badge collectors & "compared notes" learning !!
The Mike Akers books are long out of print & are fairly hard to obtain even from 2nd hand book shops. This edition is in very good condition for a 30 year old book & at a reasonable price, the original books were selling at the £10 / £!2 range when they first appeared on the market !